drachenkaiser23

[drachenkaiser23]

[drachenkaiser23]

I don't think Robotnik ever saw Stone's affection as genuine. He's used to people only valuing him if he's useful. His own bosses call him a freak, yet they put up with him because of his "perfect operation record". He isn't even shocked when he learns the goverment erased him, he expected it and had a contingency plan ready.

He keeps calling Stone a sycophant and a barnacle, because why else would someone stay with him if not to gain something? Clearly, Stone is just a suck-up wanting to ride his coattails. And Ivo is fine with that! He gets his ego stroked and in return Stone gets a slice of the world-domination pie. Mutually beneficial!

This symbiotic relationship gives Ivo a sense of control and ensures that Stone won't abandon him like everyone else. It also keeps him detached: of course Stone waited months or him to return from space, that's his job. His admiration is inevitable, and meaningless.

Ivo develops a genuine, irrational attachment to Stone, one he's able to rationalize as just being transactional. Those emotional walls shield him from the fear of abandonment that comes with caring for another person.

Except...even after Robotnik becomes a liability, Stone stays. There's no benefit, no plans of ruling humanity, not even a paycheck. Yet despite everything, Ivo tries to keep the old boss/employee dynamic going. He can't fathom the idea that someone would stay for anything other than convenience.

Then Gerald shows up, and for the first time Ivo allows himself to put down those walls. As an orphan he had built up this idealized image of family that he thought he could never have. People will use you then toss you aside when convenient, but family? Family is different. Family will always be there for you and love you no matter what. Family won't abandon you.

And suddently Stone's grovelling is no longer necessary. Why would he need someone who just pretends to like him when he now has all the unconditional love he's always longed for? That's obviously why Stone got so jealous, it couldn't have been real concern, he was just afraid of losing his comfy position as the lapdog of humanity's new king. Between a sycophant and family, the choice felt obvious.

And, of course, Gerald turns out to be just like everyone else in Ivo's life: just another person trying to get something from him. The second he stopped being useful, he was tossed aside.

His image of family is once again shattered, but those emotional walls are already down. Now that Ivo experienced that betrayal he was so afraid of, now that he's about to die, he's finally able to be honest with himself.

Looking down on Earth, he realizes there had only ever been one person on that blue marble who actually cared. Someone who had always been there, even when there was nothing to gain. Stone had never abandoned him.

But he had abandoned Stone. He tossed him aside, just like Gerald did to him. Now that he's able to understand how Stone felt, this is his last chance to make things right.

In his final moments, with nothing to fear, Robotnik puts down his emotional walls and opens up as best as he can. Stone had done so much for him, asked for nothing in return, and now it was his turn to do the same. Ivo helped save the world, not for recognition or convenience, but simply out of love.

Stone had always been a sycophant to him, yes, but he had also been a friend. A sycofriend.

[drachenkaiser23]

One of the many Stobotnik scenes, in my style

[drachenkaiser23]

I don't think Robotnik ever saw Stone's affection as genuine. He's used to people only valuing him if he's useful. His own bosses call him a freak, yet they put up with him because of his "perfect operation record". He isn't even shocked when he learns the goverment erased him, he expected it and had a contingency plan ready.

He keeps calling Stone a sycophant and a barnacle, because why else would someone stay with him if not to gain something? Clearly, Stone is just a suck-up wanting to ride his coattails. And Ivo is fine with that! He gets his ego stroked and in return Stone gets a slice of the world-domination pie. Mutually beneficial!

This symbiotic relationship gives Ivo a sense of control and ensures that Stone won't abandon him like everyone else. It also keeps him detached: of course Stone waited months or him to return from space, that's his job. His admiration is inevitable, and meaningless.

Ivo develops a genuine, irrational attachment to Stone, one he's able to rationalize as just being transactional. Those emotional walls shield him from the fear of abandonment that comes with caring for another person.

Except...even after Robotnik becomes a liability, Stone stays. There's no benefit, no plans of ruling humanity, not even a paycheck. Yet despite everything, Ivo tries to keep the old boss/employee dynamic going. He can't fathom the idea that someone would stay for anything other than convenience.

Then Gerald shows up, and for the first time Ivo allows himself to put down those walls. As an orphan he had built up this idealized image of family that he thought he could never have. People will use you then toss you aside when convenient, but family? Family is different. Family will always be there for you and love you no matter what. Family won't abandon you.

And suddently Stone's grovelling is no longer necessary. Why would he need someone who just pretends to like him when he now has all the unconditional love he's always longed for? That's obviously why Stone got so jealous, it couldn't have been real concern, he was just afraid of losing his comfy position as the lapdog of humanity's new king. Between a sycophant and family, the choice felt obvious.

And, of course, Gerald turns out to be just like everyone else in Ivo's life: just another person trying to get something from him. The second he stopped being useful, he was tossed aside.

His image of family is once again shattered, but those emotional walls are already down. Now that Ivo experienced that betrayal he was so afraid of, now that he's about to die, he's finally able to be honest with himself.

Looking down on Earth, he realizes there had only ever been one person on that blue marble who actually cared. Someone who had always been there, even when there was nothing to gain. Stone had never abandoned him.

But he had abandoned Stone. He tossed him aside, just like Gerald did to him. Now that he's able to understand how Stone felt, this is his last chance to make things right.

In his final moments, with nothing to fear, Robotnik puts down his emotional walls and opens up as best as he can. Stone had done so much for him, asked for nothing in return, and now it was his turn to do the same. Ivo helped save the world, not for recognition or convenience, but simply out of love.

Stone had always been a sycophant to him, yes, but he had also been a friend. A sycofriend.

[drachenkaiser23]

I love the way this movie implies so much about Ivo's childhood and overall life without giving us a flashback.

The Sonic Movies tend to have a general underlying theme of family. Childhood is very much connected to this theme. One could argue that your family has the most impact on you when you are a child. Robotnik was left without family presumably since birth or early childhood. Therefore there are many things he never got to experience.

Like going to a theme park

Learning how to ride a bike (in media a stereotypcally precious bonding moment between parents and kids...)

(...and apparently a thing Bot couldn't do before. Guys, he genuinly never learned how to ride a bike.)

And of course celebrating holidays such as his OWN birthday.

(This might be the first time Bot actually celebrates his birthday.)

And Halloween, Christmas and New Years. It seems like they are trying to recreate a whole childhood year in that one afternoon.

We're kind of expected to assume that Bot never had any of these things in his childhood, which is why he latches onto this opportunity when Gerald offers it.

It kind of shows that Bot is not repulsed by the idea of family at all. It shows that he just has a warped understanding of it. Thinking that because his family and the world abandoned him, he doesn't deserve these things. When Gerald comes back and doesn't reject him but specifically seeks him out Ivo allows himself to have these nice things because now he thinks there is someone who wants him to have these nice things. Which makes this

even more heartbreaking. Rejected again.

[drachenkaiser23]

The fact that he doesn't turn off the camera until Eclipse Cannon exploded makes me think that he was so nervous about the fact that he's dying and, even though he couldn't see Stone, he wanted to feel like someone is with him. In those last moments people are scared and they don't want to be alone, so he wanted to feel like the person he loved was there with him right now because he was always there.

[drachenkaiser23]

This is what Robotnik did the last time he found Stone tied up:

When he finds Stone tied up again, this time in the presence of Gerald, Robotnik makes a big deal about being shocked and disgusted by Stone's sexual proclivities.

don't be suspicious.

[drachenkaiser23]

stobotnik….

[drachenkaiser23]

Also- FUCKING HELL, THAT WAS MUCH MORE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF EGGMAN AND STONE'S RELATIONSHIP THEN I EVER EXPECTED???

And even if Ivo only said "friend", that's still more emotional vulnerability than he's probably shown anyone his entire adult life? And he said it in a way where it was obvious that he was hiding behind performative jokes and word play. Like he wasn't making a dying confession about Stone being the only other human he's ever actually liked. Just him trying to say that someone is his friend requires that degree of separation.

I genuinely don't think that he would even be able to be vulnerable enough to admit if his feelings were more than platonic about Stone. I think that we got as close as he ever could get to saying I Love You in that moment, especially when you remember that not even 20 minutes prior Gerald Robotnik had used those exact words against him in an incredibly cruel way.

And say what you will, but someone spending their final moments apologizing to someone and letting them know that they were the most important person in their life and that the world was only worth saving because they we're in it is NOT a purely platonic level of attachment.

[drachenkaiser23]

GUYS, i'm so normal about them.

[drachenkaiser23]

🕯 🕯️ 🕯

🕯 on-screen 🕯

🕯 Stobotnik 🕯

🕯 kiss 🕯

🕯 🕯️ 🕯

[drachenkaiser23]

pepper spr-

[drachenkaiser23]

naptime

[drachenkaiser23]

Admiring

[drachenkaiser23]

So I had a thought...what if Robotnik made Stone's motorbike. Believing that out of all the bikes that exist, they aren't suited for missions he wants to send Stone on (and that Stone deserves only the best. Aka Robotnik tech certified). So he goes out of his way to make Stone a bike.

So, Stone makes Robotnik's outfits, Robotnik makes Stone's tech.

[drachenkaiser23]

What do you mean that’s not what happened in the trailer? I saw it with my own two eyes.